Microsoft is finally selling Kinect on its own for Xbox One, but it’s $149

If you are one of those folks who waited to get an Xbox One, and opted to get a Kinect-free console to save $100, Microsoft has some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that if you want to grab a Kinect for your console, you can. The bad news is you’re going to be shelling out $50 more than if you had bought the original bundle.

Microsoft caught a lot of static for selling the Xbox One with a Kinect included for $100 more than Sony was selling the PlayStation 4, and to make matters worse it looked as though Microsoft was going to make the Kinect a mandatory part of the console for a while. As they have done with many things on the Xbox One, Microsoft backpedaled and made the console available at a price that matched the PS4. In fact, it turns out your Xbox actually performs better without Kinect.

Since that point, however, if you decided you wanted to add a Kinect you basically had to buy one secondhand.

The standalone Kinect will finally be available on October 7, and Microsoft is including Dance Central Spotlight as a free digital download for anyone who chooses to invest. This version of the Kinect is still cheaper than the $200 PC version of Kinect 2.0, but seeing a $50 difference between the bundle and the standalone isn’t likely to encourage many to pick one up. Since it’s likely most people opted for the Kinect-free version of the Xbox One for financial reasons, Microsoft probably should have aimed a little closer to $129.

If you have an Xbox One without Kinect you don’t know what you’re missing. Especially if you are using the TV passthrough features, the Kinect is worth it for the voice control features alone. There’s plenty of other fantastic benefits, including simple code redemption with the Kinect camera and user location for multiplayer games through controller sync. Microsoft did a great job making sure that even if there were no games that took advantage of the Kinect it still served to benefit users on a regular and consistent basis.

So for some of you picking up a Kinect on October 7 might be worthwhile. On the other hand, given Microsoft’s recent history of backpedaling, it’s possible if you wait a month or two there will be a price drop.